‘Emilia Perez': Our First Major Palme d'Or Contender [Cannes]

It’s no secret that, so far, this hasn’t been the strongest Cannes competition. attendees here desperately needed a standout film, and today we finally got one.

Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Perez” received the biggest applause of the fest at this afternoon’s Debussy press screening. Audiard already has one Palme d’Or to his name, 2015’s “Dheepan,” and he’s definitely in contention to get another one for this film.

Audiard has directed a movie musical, in Spanish, about a Mexican druglord who decides to transition into a woman, leaving his family behind and starting up a new life. The main character is inspired by one chapter of french author Boris Razon's novel "Écoute" (“Listen”).

This is a long (132 minutes) and nutso and passionate vision of a film that comes to us from a director who has always been preoccupied with the roots and dynamics of male violence. 'Emilia' is a slight change — a modern melodrama, filled with intrigue, and shot with dazzling colors.

Overqualified and overexploited, Rita (Zoe Saldana) uses her talents as a lawyer to serve a large firm more inclined to save criminal scum than to serve justice. However, she gets an unexpected call, from a cartel leader, nicknamed Manitas (Karla Sofia Gascon), who wants to retire from the crime business and disappear forever.

Manitas has a plan that he’s been secretly concocting for years: to finally become the woman he always dreamed of being. With the help of Rita, who travels to Tel Aviv to find the perfect surgeon, Manitas undergoes male-to-female surgical transition, changes his identity, and disappears, sending his two children and wife Jessi (Selena Gomes) to Switzerland.

Four years later, Manitas re-emerges, as Emilia Perez, finds Rita and asks her to set up a reunion with her wife and children — the catch is that they won’t know it’s Manitas, but, rather, his rich aunt who will shelter them in her multi-million-dollar mansion.

Transgender Spanish star Gascon, playing both Manitas and Emilia, is dynamite. This is a performance that can definitely win an acting award. There is pride, vulnerability and deception in her take on Emilia. She’s aided via a catchy score by French singer Camille (who wrote the lyrics) and her partner, composer Clement Ducol. The music plays like a rock opera. Lyrics are spoken and sung: lines sometimes harmonize from one to the other. It’s a highly original way to break through and make something fresh and vital with the musical genre.

I also loved how there were barely any “showstoppers” in the film. Songs don’t just end for audience to burst into applause. There’s a linearity between song and words that never distracts. Meanwhile, the choreography isn’t too showy and fits with whatever mood is set up for a given scene. It helps that Saldana, with strong vocals, delivers the best performance of her career —she effortlessly sings and dances her way from scene to scene, but also manages to deliver a vibrant performance.

“Emilia Perez” never loses sight of its crowd-pleasing appeal, and that does deter the overall vision of the film. Audiard is, after all, a commercially minded filmmaker and “Emilia Perez” is meant to adhere to a variety of tastes. The action-packed finale, although entertaining, doesn’t match the fervent vibrancy of the rest of the film. Ditto a subplot involving Emilia and Rita setting up a nonprofit designed to help loved ones search for the victims of cartel violence.

“Emilia Perez” is a strange film, sometimes a silly one, that's all over the map, but despite the heightened reality and struggles to suspend disbelief, it’s very hard not to be won over by Audiard’s gonzo vision here. [B+]